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August 21, 2008

BlackBerry Bold Hacks

I have started using a BlackBerry Bold, and wanted to share a number of hacks (or ways of using it that you might not have picked up on, in non-geek speak)

1. Bedside mode. To turn your Bold into an ambient bedside clock, go to the menu and click on the Clock icon. Press the BlackBerry button (the one to the left of the rollerball) and click on Enter Bedside Mode. Presto. The phone is now a glowy bedside clock.

2. Apps. use the web browser to go to http://m.google.com and you can download some of Google's nifty mobile apps, such as Gmail and Gmaps.

3. Turn out the lights. The Bold, like other BlackBerry models, has a blinking light that alert
you as to when you have new unread emails. Turning this light off let's
you sleep at night without your bedroom becoming Blackpool
Illuminations, and you'll find it a de-stressing exercise too. Most
people I've spoken to don't realise you can do this.
To turn off the red light start at your home screen, go to Profiles,
scroll down to the bottom and click on Advanced. Click on the profile
you're on right now and it will let you edit its preferences. Click on
Messages. Set the Repeat Notifications option to None (instead of LED
Flashing). Hey presto you won't have the red light force you to check
your inbox ever again!

[More coming soon. I've not had the Bold long. I started this because I was asked on Twitter about one the BlackBerry Bold's bedside mode. It didn't fit into 140 chraracters.]